Commercial
Fly Tier, Tracy Peterson"will demo some of his patterns
developed for the Minnesota/Wisconsin/Montana area."The program and instructions are free.
So are the coffee and snacks.
Bring snacks to share if you want to.
Bring your own tools, and materials and tie along. Beginners are
welcome.Just some guys getting
together & tying flies.

"Yes, you guessed it. I'm playing with my newest picture
making toys. Some of these toys are optical. Some are
digital. Every picture in this presentation was taken with a
digital camera and then altered with Photoshop software. No
attempt has been made to hide or deceive; quite the contrary.
Every attempt has been made to clarify and communicate the power of
the eye to your eyes. The eye might the greatest

instrument
of
perception for the creatures that have them. Sight allows us to
assess information quickly which allows for quick reaction, often a
matter of life and death. However the blessing may also be a
curse. If you are the prey, being hard to see is important to your
survival and your eyes may be some of the hardest parts of your
body to hide. Which means it may be the easiest feature for a
predator to target. At least that seems to be true in the case
of some schooling bait fish and some of the predator fish that feed on
them. Patty and I encountered this situation while fishing around the shoreline rocks south of Barra De
Navidad,
Mexico. Jacks, Sierra Mackerel and Corvina were feeding on a
small baitfish that was perfectly matched to a #4 olive & white
Clouser Minnow. For a while it was a fish every cast. Then
we ran out of those flies. The next fly tried was a "Bend-back" of
exactly the same size and color. It was tied from the materials,
but had no eyes and no eye
target. No hits at all, over an extended period. The next
pattern tried was an ALF of same color and size, but with prominent
reflective silver and black eyes. I was instantly back
into numbers of hook ups. The eyes were the key to catching fish
for the next several days.

At left is a
Flatiron Herring called a Sardina from the Sea of Cortez. Note the
very prominent black pupil in the reflective iris. The pupil
itself may be the key.

Several
species of saltwater game fish exhibit false eyes at the tail end of
their bodies to confuse predators that might want to feed on them.
Mot notable are the Redfish that inhabit coastal areas of the south
east U.S.A.

With eyes being so
important as targets for predatory fish, it only stands to reason that
some discerning fly tiers would put eyes on their flies. Who was
first? No one knows. One of the first applications that
became popular was the use of Jungle Cock Eyes on flies tied to catch
Atlantic Salmon. These eyes are the tips of neck hackles
from the Gray India Jungle Fowl. These feathers

have an eye-spot in
the enamel-like coating. The use of Jungle Cock Eyes also became
popular on streamer flies that simulate fresh water bait fish.
Is a cluster or school of many eyes harder to target than one eye?
Schooling baitfish use "too many targets" as a defense
mechanism. The Jungle Cock

neck might also provide
an answer. The Jungle
Cock neck is probably the result of genetic selection?
It would be interesting to know which predator targeted the eyes of
jungle cocks and was finally rendered ineffective by the school of
eyes on it's neck. It may have happened. At any rate this adaptation has provided fly
tiers a supply of eyes for flies for many years. Unfortunately
Jungle Cock feathers are expensive, somewhat fragile and not always
easy to come by. In many cases it is easier to paint eyes
on the

head of a fly. Flies that have large
heads facilitate this process. Bass popping bugs are prime
candidates for these kinds of eyes. With the example furnished
here, several coats of paint form the background color and then the eye.
Then the whole head of the popper is coated with clear epoxy which adds
luster and extreme durability. Popping bugs float on the surface
of the water and attract fish by making loud disturbances. Under
these conditions it is hard to determine whether eyes on

poppers are
made to attract fish or
fishermen. We have fished poppers with and without eyes and I
always thought that the ones with eyes caught more fish.
Doing this kind of research is a pretty good job even if it isn't
entirely scientific. I have little doubt that eyes make a
lot of difference in the productivity of flies that are tied to
represent bait fish. If normal size eyes are a target for
predatory fish, then productivity of a certain fly pattern might be
increased simply by

increasing the size of the eyes thus
making the target easier to see. Some anglers go to an extreme. At
left is a Big Eyed Baitfish. It is tied like many "Deceiver
patterns", but has oversized doll eyes glued to the sides of an
over sized head.

The pupils in these eyes are mobile and
add movement and sound as the fly is retrieved. The air trapped
inside the eye gives the fly a heads-up attitude. This pattern
has been proven to be very effective, but the jury is out as to
whether the over size eyes produce more strikes than normal size
eyes. (We would love your input on eye size and will be glad to
publish your comments). The clear lens of real eyes are in most
cases hemispherical.

However the lens is rarely discernable.
The iris and pupil are the features of the eye that are easiest to
see. The iris is relatively flat at first appearance. The
pupil is a hole, but at a glance it also appears to be flat.

Recently some really
neat
looking hemispherical 3-D eyes have become available. We
wondered if they might get more strikes than flat ones. So far
our tests have been inconclusive. As to colors of eyes? We
have tried yellow, silver and red iris color. They have all
caught fish. Most baitfish have reflective irises. Many
have silver irises. However reflective silver irises on our
flies haven't proven to be any more effective than painted
yellow. Using red irises

is
a trick that Captain Bob
Marvin out of Naples, Florida turned us on to. He said that many
times when predator fish attack a school of bait fish, their first
intention is to cripple as many baits as possible. Then they can
pick up the crippled fish in a more leisurely fashion. This is
more efficient than killing only one at a time. Often the
crippling blow comes from the slap of a tail or ramming of the
head. The bait is often severely bruised and the eye ball often
fills with blood giving the eye a red iris. Red

eyes can signify
an easy meal.
The
pupil is the aperture through which light passes to the specialized
nerve ending in the back of the eye ball which sends the illusion of
sight to the brain. By its very function it has to fit certain
configurations that are not easily disguised. A baitfish pupil
nearly always looks like a black dot. If the pupil is the real
target, can the iris be eliminated from the fly? Once

again no
conclusive evidence exists. Flies like the one
above that uses plastic dumb-bell eyes have proven to be more
effective than the same pattern with no eyes at all. Flies with
eyes painted on lead or brass dumb-bells have proven to be very
effective. The eye target is very prominently displayed and the
heavy weight concentrated near the eye gives the fly an erratic,
wounded action when retrieved.

Welcome
Patagonia!Now these select Patagonia items
can be found at The Fly Fishing Shop in Welches, OR

March
Brown Mayfly HatchesRhithrogena morrisoni (that's the scientific
name)March Browns are your first
"easy-to-see" hatch of the new season. Look for March
Brown hatches on local rivers when water temperatures start reaching
42 degrees consistently. This can occur in most lower elevation
water sheds in mid- March

and
continues through early April. Hatching March Browns can
create some very exciting surface film and dry fly fishing. Hatches of
duns usually start in the early after noon and spinner falls are in
the late evening.

Pounding the bottom with
weighted March Brown Nymph flies can provide constant action from
mid-morning into the early stages of the hatch. The March Brown
Nymph in sizes #12 & #14 will be your bread and butter fly.
However nymphal color tends to adapt to the color of the stream bed.
Fishing two flies at once will increase your odds of hooking up.
Usually two different colors or sizes are used. Black, Olive and
Gold Rib Hares Ears are valuable flies to have with you and will some
times out fish the more realistic patterns. March Brown
Nymphs live in riffles and fast, rocky runs. As the nymphs near
maturity, they migrate to slower water. During the migration, they can
loose their grip and drift in the current. For this reason trout
will congregate in places where fast riffles start to slow down and on
the seams between the fast and slow water. Fish your nymphs
where the current changes speed. Approach the water carefully.
Start by fishing the slower water first with flies that are lightly
weighted. Your flies will be most effective if they are
perfectly dead drift. Cast them slightly upstream and mend a
little slack into you presentation. As you work your way out
into the faster current, add lead shot to keep your flies near the
bottom.

As the water warms at mid-day the nymph rise toward the surface to
hatch. Some of these nymphs are intercepted by trout during this
upward migration. Try tying a Soft Hackle to a dropper 3' above
your nymphs. This technique can pay extra dividends.

As the Duns begin to hatch trout
will rise to the surface to catch them. This often produces the
most visually exciting part of the day. Big trout rising to
March Browns during the peak of the hatch can be very splashy. Often the rise
starts much quieter as trout pick off the emergers just below the
surface. At this time a Soft Hackle fished
just below the surface can be your best fly. It is often even
more effective if you add March Brown Cripple or dry fly to a
dropper 1' to 3' from your soft hackle and fish both flies dead drift. Duns
and emergers produce the best surface fishing, but some trout will sip
spinners in the quietest of water. A March Brown "spinner
fall" can extend your fishing day. Spinner falls usually
occur over faster water areas. However they create the most
reliable feeding activity if they raft up in back eddies down stream.
Sometimes the evening back eddy rise that you think is midge emergence
is actually created by collecting dead March Brown spinners.

March
Brown NymphPounding the bottom with weighted March Brown Nymph
flies can provide constant action from mid-morning into the early stages
of the hatch. The March Brown Nymph in sizes #12 & #14 will be
your bread and butter fly for March Browns.

Black
Hares Ear
Some Rhithrogena nymphs
are very dark. This fly
looks enough like many dark mayfly and stonefly nymphs that is is
valuable nearly year round. It is particularly productive during
early spring and winter months.

March
Brown CrippleYou can fish the cripple like a dry fly by itself or it
can be very effective if you add March Brown Cripple to a dropper 1'
to 3' from your dry fly and fish both flies dead drift. A
Bob Quigley pattern.

Loopwing
Paradun, March BrownThis is a realistic pattern that can be very effective under all
conditions but especially under the slick water bright light condition
where fish can be very wary. Because this fly is fragile it
should be saved for special occasions. A Bob
Quigley pattern.

March
Brown Traditional DunThis versatile "easy to see" fly is proven under a wide
variety of conditions. It may be fished "in the round" or
the hackle can be trimmed on the bottom for a lower silhouette.

March
Brown SpinnerA March Brown "spinner fall" can extend
your fishing day. Spinner falls usually occur over faster water
areas. However they create the most reliable feeding activity if
they raft up in back eddies down stream. Sometimes the evening
back eddy rise that you think is midge emergence is actually created
by collecting dead March Brown spinners.